Joy is found when we place Jesus first, Others second, and You (ourselves) third. And yet we’re so used to living for ourselves first because we think it’ll make us happier. But if we come to see our sinfulness, that it’s something inside of us that prevents joy, then we can experience the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine personally.
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When Abraham cut a covenant with God, we find a strange thing: only God walks through the blood, which signifies that God will pay the price when Abraham breaks the covenant promise. This event foreshadows how God covers our sin—Jesus paid the penalty of blood for each one of us. Becoming a Christian starts with an acknowledgment of our own sinfulness before God. Without this vital step, the gospel isn’t good news. In our Bible study, we discover that acknowleding our sin involves a proper and honest understanding of ourselves.
Listen:
Last Friday, everyone took off for Castro Valley Golfland for a round of minigolf. We all braved the cooler weather to play a round of 18 holes. In case you were wondering what miniature golf is, it’s not golfing on a small scale. Instead, every player has a putter (a small golf club about 1 meter long) and has to hit a golf ball into the hole. What makes minigolf fun is the fact that many of the holes have random obstacles: you need to hit the ball straight down a line and into a castle where the door opens and closes… or you need to hit hard enough so that it can jump over a stream of water… or you need to put the ball into a hole that’s located in the middle of what looks like a volcano.
If you can’t tell, its a bundle of fun. You don’t need any real golf skill. In fact, half of the game is about luck. Ask the guys who were golfing with me–I had two “hole in one’s” in a row! And one of those came when I hit the ball into the wrong ramp, but got a lucky spin on the ball. (amazing)
The entire time, we were laughing and making fun of each other. One poor guy in my group had trouble on every weird obstacle that involved a door… and his roommate, instead of feeling great compassion, almost fell over laughing every time.
In case you were wondering who the picture to the right is of, these are the guys who hit under par. In other words, they beat the “average” number of strokes it takes for a person to complete a round of minigolf. Our champions. The rest of us… well, we were below average. If you missed it this time, make sure to join us next time and test your skills.
Up for tonight: Sports night at Alameda High. Bring your shoes!
Christianity and serving God is not an insurance policy for heaven. It’s a personal relationship with God, as we learn from the example of Abraham, who experienced God coming to him during times of anxiety and fear. Wondering if we can serve God later so that we can temporarily focus on research, academics, or career now actually shows how we often do not view God in a personal way.
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Last Friday, we had a special talk from Dr. John Lee who spoke about faith and being a Christian in graduate school. Afterwards we went to Golf Land and played miniature golf, a favorite suburban pastime. After an intense game, we just decided to take pictures with the miniature buildings. Everyone who went had lots of fun. We hope that you can join us next time.
Shufei wrote about their Doreimon cookie night, and I felt that we had to talk about what we did after Friday Forum. 2 weeks ago, Meowmeow and I took a smaller group of people out to Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Twin Peaks has one of the best views of San Francisco… and for those of you who have never gone, the night view is even better. (You will always see couples spending time there because its actually quite romantic) We got there right before the rain started, so we had a fogless, gorgeous view of the city. We stayed there quite a long time actually. So long that we all got cold and wet because the view was so great.
We then headed out to Golden Island Cafe in the Sunset district for some tasty Cantonese desserts like sago with canaloupe juice, topped with mixed fruit… or hot glass jelly and coconut milk… or my personal favorite: mango sago. Everyone agreed that the desserts were great. So next time you are out in San Francisco and want to find a tasty treat, try Golden Island. Or just make sure to come along with us next time!
Are faith in God and a busy graduate student life in science research mutually exclusive? As we learn from the life of our special speaker, the answer is clearly no. Drawing from his own experience, we see that its possible to be both a hard-working graduate student and a faithful Christian. How? From having an attitude toward God of extravagance and love in all that we do—a good lesson that he learned from the story of the woman with an alabaster jar.
Listen:
Last week, we split up into smaller groups for post-Bible Study activities. Karen and I led a group of 12 people at Helen’s place to bake cookies and to play games. Some of the sisters got really creative in making shapes with the cookie dough. In the picture, Helen and Jade made a huge Doremon cookie. After it expanded in the oven, its chubby hands and feet reminded us of Baby Jonathan. Some of the sisters had a lot of fun making other shapes, while the rest of us played Clue and Bang!. The game of Bang! was quite intense due to the fact that Helen and Jenny pulled a stunt move that confused just about everyone in the game. It was a great game! I heard that other smaller groups had a lot of fun as well: one group went to Twin Peaks in San Francisco; another group made crepes and fondue; and, another group hung out at Ranch 99. Join us for our post-Bible study activity. We will be going to mini-golf this Friday (10/10).
After his miraculous victory over 5 kings, Abraham finds himself in a position of fear and doubt. Ironically, even when things are going well in our own lives, all it takes is for us to focus on one area where things don’t seem to work—and we find ourselves with the same kind of fear and anxiety. We would do well to learn from God’s response to Abraham: that He is our shield from trouble and our great reward.
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International Graduate Student Ministry (IGSM) is an official graduate student group at UC Berkeley. IGSM started in the fall of 2003 with the vision to help all UC Berkeley graduate students from various countries (including students from the United States) find out the true meaning and purpose of their lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of us also attend Gracepoint Berkeley, where Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang lead the ministry.
